Arlo Mode Changing by itself

[Mavrrick]

Ok so i wanted to bring this up here so that the Arlo Community was aware.

Arlo has reacently worked with Smartthings to disable a Smartapp called Arlo Pilot. This has the potential to cripple Arlo's integration with Smartthings because of a few major gaps with their functionality that wasn't integrated. The biggest one is the lack of control of Arlo Modes from the Smartthings environment. Almost as bad but more impactful in reality is the inability to control notifications from Arlo from the smarthing cloud. This is a bigger problem because anytime you submit a configuration change from Smartthings Arlo decides to turn on notifications and turn off recording for the active mode. Arlo Pilot enabled users of Smartthings to have triggered events that would tell Arlo to change the mode of the cameras. This effectly negated the problems with the integration. The claim is that Arlopilot was causing instability by creating heavy load. This is likely not true as all Arlo pilot did was react to triggers in smartthings to tell Arlo to change the modes. That doesn't mean that users of arlopilot didn't create more changes though. We likely did because we had more ganular control of triggers in smartthings like when we left home or set our alarm we may want the mode to change.

If Arlo would correct the integration so that the notification were not turned on with any settings change notifications could atleast then be setup in Smartthings. This is largely what is needed to atleast maintain useability of Arlo cameras in Smartthings.

[JessicaP]

We’re sorry to hear you’re having trouble accessing your Arlo camera from your SmartThings app. Our team is actively investigating, and in the meantime we suggest you use your Arlo app instead to access your Arlo camera. Thank you for your patience as we look into this matter, and we will share further updates as available.

[AaronGalvan]

I just got my Samsung Smartthings Hub. Super excited. I was able to create my custom IFTTTs with my cameras and set the camera the self-popluated "Smartthings Mode" but I dont see the this mode generating for my Light Bright. Is there a simple fix?

[enhall1985]

Since the first outage a week ago, SmartThings no longer syncs with Arlo correctly anyone have a fix?

[brh]

@enhall1985,

Where in the process are you having problems? I had a problem with the Classic app about a month ago when I was trying to integrate my Arlo Security lights. I went into the new app and was able to successfully add them. Now all my Security lights and cameras are all working in both apps.

Brian

[curh]

My Arlo is controlled by SmartThings, and generally sits in SmartThings mode.  For the past 2 weeks, I noticed that nothing is happening, and when I check Arlo, it is in disarmed mode.  It doesnt matter if I set it back to armed or smartthings, it makes its way back to disarmed.

[Mavrrick]

@JessicaP 

So I have been working with trying to make things work with official smartthings integration. One problem i have found is that it appers that there are frequent occasions where the integration between Smartthings and Arlo doesn't appear to complete a action and the cameras are left in a bad state. Namely the camera is left with a Clipstatus of initiated. This prevents Smartthings from being able to record anymore. Simply put it appears that this state is only updated when something is sent from Arlo and so once the state is messed up it will never update with the Smartthings side.

Seeing this I built a health check app that checks that status and will trigger a recording via IFTTT to help Arlo recover the camera. But i have even seen occasions where the camera will not recover for minutes and multiple attempts using IFTTT to trigger a recording. 

The best part is that when this event occurs it looks as though Arlo itself isn't retaining the clip that appears to have created the failed condition. 

I am bringing this up as i don't see this once or twice but many times throughout the day. can someone please review what is happening and hopefuly correct it. It appears whatever is effecting the integration with one is effecting the other. I have also reached out to Smartthings support to see if they can shed any light on it.

[halleyro]

@JessicaP 

I myself am very disapointed in this decision by Arlo. Simple communication between Smartthings modes and Arlo Arm/Disarm shouldnt even be an issue. Not having that capability anymore makes Arlo cameras nothing more than an over priced paper weight. Having the ability for my wife and kids to easily hit a button on our actiontiles panel to achive this was the only reason why I continued to purchase Arlo cameras when I had use for a new coverage zone. Simply put I will NOT be purchasing Arlo products for our new home and our recently finished vacation home. Frankly I will be looking into returning the new add on cameras I bought last month as well. It is rediculous that the cameras are branded as Smartthings compatible. There are far better options on the market that I will be transitioning to.

[sep2li]

@halleyro 

I'm also extremely disappointed in Arlo's nightmarishly basic implementation of IFTTT and SmartThings (mainly because of the missing ability to trigger custom modes) and since this doesn't seem to get addressed (it's been out there for many years now), I am wondering what other solutions you would recommend we all switch to? What camera system has all the capabilities Arlo has plus a finer mode control plus better IFTTT integration? Can you spell out a recommendation?

[waltdews]

I bought three Arlo Q cameras because I am heavily invested in Smartthings and they advertise compatibility.  If I had known how limited and poor the connection is I would have not of purchased.  There are other options, some much cheaper, that do everything an Arlo camera can do if not connected to Smartthings.  Since the connection is so limited I have simply disconnected the Arlo cameras and gone to other brands. The Arlo cameras not act more or less just like all the others.   Arlo might be worth it with a good interface to Smarthings but as is I will not be buying any more of their cameras .  As has been said elsewhere here, we are not really asking for all that much and improving that connection just might be good for Arlo sales.  Are they listening ?????